Your Dark Soul series has been a roller-coaster ride for me. It is not a genre romance, even though it has some very romantic moments. It features themes I rarely seek out, including menage, BDSM, and protagonists in organized crime. Purchasing all five volumes is not inexpensive. It is quite brutal in places. And while I enjoy serialized fiction, this one is more like a set of linked short stories in parts than a serialized novel.

And yet. And yet. I read each installment with apprehension but also eagerness, and they have rewarded me handsomely. I put off reading Volumes 4 and 5 for weeks, in part because I wanted to give them the attention they deserved. I’ve already talked about Volumes 1 and 2 here and here, so this review will cover the last three installments. I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers, because part of the pleasure and impact of the story comes from the way you’ve put it together. For readers who find my plot summary inadequate, there are reviews at Goodreads and a number of blogs that provide more answers.

The overall storyline is relatively compact: Stefano Marino, a avowedly heterosexual mob boss with a beautiful wife whom he loves, falls hard for Silvio Spadaro, an assassin who is the lover and heir of another boss. That boss sends Silvio to Stefano to assist him in a battle with the Russian mob. Volume 3 begins with the Russians’ attack on Stefano and Silvio’s retaliation against them, two acts that bring them together physically and emotionally, and it introduces a character from Silvio’s past who becomes part of the campaign against the Russians. This installment reveals more about Silvio, from his ruthlessness as an assassin and a person, to his sexual needs, to his vulnerability when he was a child. Stefano finally starts to come to terms with his attraction to Silvio and realizes it is not something he can wish or repress away.

In Volume 4, Silvio and Franco’s onslaught on the Russia mob continues and the relationship between Silvio and Stefano deepens, and both developments have their inevitable consequences. The mob war escalates beyond something that can be dealt with by merely buying off local law enforcement, and Donata is no fool. Stefano’s personal and professional existences are both up for grabs by the end, and it’s not at all clear which way the resolutions lie. Stefano is deeply conflicted because he is growing more emotionally committed to Silvio, but he also loves Donata, and he wants to keep everything the way it is and somehow add Silvio into the mix. Plus, he is trying to maintain his mob supremacy in the face of increasing threats.

Volume 5 has to wrap all of these loose ends together. And it does, with style and assurance, all the while introducing another major character. Savvy readers should deduce the backstory of the new character fairly quickly. Since I was slow on the uptake, I was kind of annoyed at first that this character became so important, although I understood why he had to for storyline reasons; then I finally got it and everything made sense.

In this final episode, the Russians are basically out of the picture but Stefano and Silvio have to deal with the increased law enforcement attention that accompanies their demise. Stefano tries to find a way to salvage his marriage while still hanging on to Silvio and fighting off challenges from within his organization. We also find out more about Silvio, which I found extremely helpful. By the beginning of Volume 4 I was starting to wonder if he was a sociopath. The ultimate explanation for some of his personality made sense to me, although I’m still ambivalent about how trustworthy he is and how fully he can commit to other human beings. But I could definitely see why Stefano didn’t want to have to choose:

He stood and slipped out of bed and closed the door behind him on the way, smiling to himself. Compared to Donata, Silvio was the polar opposite. Not a graceful or early riser. And that would be less funny if Silvio weren’t a sicario. If he killed a stranger for absolutely no personal reason, how would he respond if unduly irritated?

But of course, all that was idle bullshit, especially considering that the big issue in the back of Stefano’s mind was his wife. He kept checking his phone in the hope of a text from her. He sometimes touched her profile on his phone, especially when Silvio was asleep or occupied with something else. He’d snapped a photo of her on one of the date nights, dressed in a gorgeous red dress, her hair tumbling down. It showed up every time she called him, and sat as a tiny thumbnail right next to her name. Donata Marino.

And he was hiding away from her in this hotel, fucking Silvio, finally sating that hunger and that deeper need, the terrible affection for another man. But, truth was, he was hiding, still avoiding her.

I needed time to work this out for myself. I needed to know if it was real. And God help me, but it is.

I thought that the way you resolved these threads was ingenious from a storytelling point of view, but I wasn’t completely convinced in terms of the characters.  What I mean by this is that everything worked in terms of the characters as they appear in the book, but I wondered if real people would work things out the same way (and it’s definitely a testament to the quality of the characterizations that I came to think of them as real people).

First, I  thought Stefano needed to experience the consequences of his various decisions a bit more than he did. I didn’t want him to grovel more or be punished, exactly, but resolutions seemed to come a little too quickly (this may have been a consequence of page length). Second, I wasn’t fully satisfied by way Stefano made the decisions about his future and the ramifications of those decisions for both him and Donata. Stefano made them unilaterally even though they affected both of them, and I had trouble believing that it was as easy for the two of them to live with the decision as it seemed in the end. Even when you hate something, it’s hard to shift the patterns and habits of decades. And while I was pleased that there was an HEA in the end, I had trouble believing the characters were as free of their pasts as they seemed to be. So, in some ways, Volume 5 was the least satisfying for me.

Overall, though, the way the characters and the plot unfolded over the installments was really well done. Stefano goes from being confused and not very self-aware to decisive and much more in control, as well as more honest with himself and those he loves. Donata, when she finally appears on the page, is worth the wait. She’s a little too understanding in the last installment, but she’s a strong woman who seems to be making thoughtful and considered choices. And Silvio becomes less of an enigma and more of a human being. He’s still the same Silvio we met at the beginning of the first volume to a great extent, but we see him less as a gorgeous assassin and more as the complex young man that he is.

The quality of the writing sustains a high level of quality throughout the five installments; it is taut, focused, and perfect for the subject matter. The sex scenes are explicit, hot, and critical to the development of the plot and characters. There is an m/m/f scene which is extremely well done. If readers aren’t fanning themselves throughout, I’ll be surprised.

I am so glad I stretched outside my comfort zone and picked up this series. I want to reiterate, this is not a genre romance. It’s not easily classified, either as conventional m/m or menage. There are some extremely violent scenes, and the characters do some pretty unlikeable things. They are ultimately sympathetic, but it takes some of them quite a while to get there, and all readers may not make the journey with them. But for those who do, this is an incredibly rewarding read. It’s not perfect, but it’s very hard to forget.

Grade for series: A-/B+

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1. REVIEW: Dark Soul Vol. 1 by Aleksandr Voinov
2. REVIEW: Soul Song by Marjorie Liu
3. REVIEW: My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent

With the exception of The Lion of Kent, which I enjoyed reading last year but which didn’t stick in my mind, I haven’t read your work (even though I’ve heard many good things about it). Your choice of settings and characters aren’t the type I usually seek out, but when I saw that you were publishing a series of contemporary short stories I was intrigued. I don’t generally read genre fiction with criminals as the protagonists, but something in the blurbs resonated with me, and the word-of-mouth and reviews have been stellar. So I bit the bullet and downloaded Dark Soul Vol. 1. And wow, am I glad I did.

The Dark Soul series comprises several short stories, bundled in pairs. They revolve around Stefano Marino, a “made man” (an official member of the Mafia) and Silvio Spadano, the protege, heir and assassin of a retired Mafia executive, Gianbattista Falchi. They meet for the first time in the first story, “Dark Soul,” when Mafia members from Europe and North America are summoned to the home of a powerful, dying Mafioso. Stefano is technically higher in rank but Silvio, as Falchi’s representative and favorite, is treated with greater deference. Stefano is happily married and considers himself straight, but he is immediately attracted to Silvio. When Silvio sneaks into Stefano’s room at night (we don’t find out why) and immobilizes Stefano’s bodyguard, Vince, Stefano turns the tables, ties Silvio up and humiliates him in a way that arouses them both.

The second story, “Dark Secrets,” takes place at Gianbattista Falchi’s Tuscan estate, where Stefano has come to ask Falchi for help with his business, and it explores the relationship between Silvio and his much older boss, who are clearly involved both sexually and emotionally. Stefano continues to be attracted to Silvio and it’s evident the attraction is returned, but Stefano is both resistant and puzzled: resistant because the Mafia is intolerant of homosexuality and he fears for his position and his business, and puzzled because he is genuinely in love with and sexually attracted to his wife, Donata. Through Stefano’s POV, the story gives us insight into the complex and intense nature of Silvio and Falchi’s relationship, a relationship which takes a surprising turn at the end of the story and sets up the second volume of the series.

These stories are not romances; there is no HEA or even HFN at the end of Volume 1, and the reader is left hanging plotwise. If you like cliffhangers it’s a great one, but if you don’t and you like the sound of the first volume, you should go into it prepared to download the next one when you’re done. The stories are also somewhat unusual in their construction. They follow a standard chronological narrative, but there are all kinds of unresolved story and character threads.

For example, we never find out what happens to the dying Mafia Don in the first story. The second story picks up some time after the first, but we don’t know what happens in the interim. Is Vince going to be an important character throughout the series?

The stories have this amazing texture and density, but we only get partial views of basic aspects like plot, motivations, etc. It’s both frustrating and compelling. I had to read the first few pages several times to get my bearings, because I felt thrown in at the deep end. But I kept reading anyway, because the writing was powerful and the characters were irresistible. The writing has a hypermasculine feel to it, which seems appopriate to the hypermasculine environment; it’s not particularly spare, but it’s direct and almost in-your-face:

Spadaro studied him, head tilted. “That’s why I don’t belong to anybody,” he said quietly, but with the force and conviction of a kidney punch. “I’m not following their fucking rules.” He swept the crowd again with his expressionless black eyes, then fixed them on Stefano’s face.

Stefano’s lips tingled. It was still hard to breathe and he had no idea why. He couldn’t let this man intimidate him. Couldn’t be seen as too interested. Barracuda or not—even Gianbattista Falchi’s protetto or not—he could afford zero suspicion. He’d be dead. Fuck Spadaro for flustering him so, and fuck himself for getting flustered, but he’d never show it. “Well, give Falchi my best wishes when you return to him.”

“Will do.” Spadaro sketched an ironic salute and stepped away.

Stefano fought the urge to straighten his tie, fought harder against the urge to watch the Barracuda cut through the assembled groups of men.

He caught Vince’s gaze, and though his bodyguard relaxed a little, he still looked worried. Stefano could see why. A sicario who belonged to a “retired” consigliere, and not just any pensioner, but crafty old Gianbattista Falchi, who’d been more powerful in his own right than many bosses. That was all manner of disturbing. “Paying his respects” by being anything but respectful.

The relationship that develops between the two men is at times brutal (literally so in the first story). And yet, by the end of the second story, I was convinced that more tender feelings could flourish between them as well. Silvio thrives on the combination of pain and pleasure, and Stefano instinctively responds:

Stefano’s own balls tightened in sympathy, but God, Silvio in pain was a sight to behold. It fed the same dark arousal that claimed him when he watched the kind of porn where the actors wore not just lust on their faces, but pain or shame or both. He’d never get shame from Silvio, but the way the young killer embraced his emotions during sex—regardless of what exactly they were—was a huge turn-on. Whatever happened to Silvio, he sank into it without reservation, possibly even without self-awareness.

What would it be like to have a lover like that? Somebody he could do this to, mix the pleasure with pain. Someone who would take it all and more and never consider him a controlling freak.

Although Silvio masks his vulnerable side and his softer emotional needs, by the end of the second story they have been revealed, both to the reader and to Stefano. I very much look forward to seeing how you concurrently explore the relationships and the criminal storyline.

I want to reiterate that this series is not genre romance, nor does it conform to the usual m/m conventions. The protagonists have sex with other people in these stories. The main characters are all part of the criminal underworld, which some readers will find objectionable. So far the sex scenes are anything but vanilla (one involves non-consensual acts). I really appreciate that Stefano’s wife is not portrayed as emotionally incomplete, a shrew, or a ditz, but I can’t imagine things are going to go well for her marriage in the subsequent installments.

I should also note that the book is $3.99 for about 20,000 words (or about 60-70 pdf pages). That is not cheap, and frankly, the price kept me from picking it up a while ago. But I kept thinking about it, and for me the quality is worth the price.

With all these caveats stipulated, I definitely recommend this series. If readers are looking for excellent writing, strong characterizations, sizzling sex, and a fascinating storyline, you won’t want to miss Dark Soul Vol. 1. I’m off to download Volumes 2 and 3.

Grade: A-/B+

~ Sunita

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1. REVIEW: Soul Song by Marjorie Liu
2. REVIEW: Soul Magic by Jennifer Lyons
3. REVIEW: Soul Enchilada by David Macinnis Gill